Americans Are Gloomier Than Ever... But There's Hope

It’s not just Democrats feeling down — it’s Republicans, too.

Americans are more down about their future than at any point in nearly 20 years.

A new Gallup poll finds that in 2025, only 59% of Americans expect their lives to be good 5 years from now. That’s the lowest reading since Gallup started asking the question.

Gallup tracks how people feel about their lives now and how they think they’ll feel in the future. Most of the time, those two move together. If people feel good about the present, they usually feel hopeful about what’s ahead.

That’s not happening anymore.

Satisfaction with life today has slipped over the past decade, but optimism about the future has fallen much faster.

Gallup researcher Dan Witters says hope for the future has eroded almost twice as much as satisfaction with the present.

Gallup considers people “thriving” if they rate their current life at 7 or higher and their future at 8 or higher. Right now, fewer than half of Americans — about 48% — meet that standard.

Politics usually shifts optimism from one party to the other. When a new party takes the White House, its supporters feel better, and the other side feels worse.

That didn’t happen this time.

As President Trump returned to office, Democrats’ optimism dropped sharply, from 65% to 57%. Republicans felt somewhat better, but not nearly enough to make up for that drop.

And Republicans themselves aren’t as upbeat as they were at the end of Trump’s first term. A recent AP-NORC poll found that while most Republicans still support the president, many say the economy hasn’t lived up to expectations.

The poll also shows a clear drop in optimism among Hispanic adults.

Their outlook fell from 69% to 63%, a bigger decline than among white or Black Americans. Researchers say that may reflect rising costs, health care worries, and concern over immigration enforcement.

A Pew survey found that about 6 in 10 Latinos say they’ve seen or heard about ICE raids or arrests in their community in the past 6 months.

Witters says that kind of visibility matters — and for Hispanic Americans, it can feel especially close to home.

The data comes from the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index, based on more than 22,000 interviews conducted throughout 2025.

How to feel just a little bit better about all this

So what do you do with numbers like this?

You can’t ignore them. The mood is real. The anxiety is real. A lot of people feel like the country is wobbling — politically, economically, culturally — and that sense of instability eats away at hope.

But gloom feeds on passivity.

One way to fight it is to shrink the frame. National politics feels overwhelming because it is. But your daily life isn’t run from Washington. It’s shaped by your work, your family, your friends, and your local community. Investing there isn’t denial — it’s control. Volunteer. Show up to a city council meeting. Support a local business. Build something. Action restores agency.

Another thing: reduce the constant drip of outrage. Doomscrolling feels like staying informed. Often, it’s just marinating in alarm. Staying informed is healthy. Saturating your nervous system 10 hours a day isn’t.

There are also hard facts that don’t fit the “everything is collapsing” narrative. Technology continues to advance. Medical breakthroughs continue. Violent crime, long-term, is far below historic highs. Millions of Americans are still starting businesses, raising families, building careers, solving problems, getting married, and celebrating anniversaries. That doesn’t erase real problems. But it complicates the story.

History helps, too. This country has gone through civil war, world wars, depression, assassinations, Watergate, pandemics, and 9/11. Every era felt like the breaking point. And yet the arc didn’t snap. It bent. It strained. It corrected.

Hope isn’t blind optimism. It’s a disciplined perspective.

If fewer than half of Americans feel they’re “thriving,” that doesn’t mean thriving is impossible. It means it takes intention. It means protecting your mental bandwidth, investing in relationships, and focusing on what you can influence instead of obsessing over what you can’t.

The country may feel unstable. But your personal future is not fully dictated by the headlines.

You still get to build it.

And put the Police song “When the World is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around” on repeat.

Let me know what you think in the comments below. And check out the Disciples of Democracy podcast.